Minutes passed by. The booming sound of a giant bell located in the city square began to echo, signaling the change of time from morning to noon, exactly at 12 o'clock.
"Hmm~ it looks like it's already noon, huh? I didn't expect time to pass faster than I thought." said Anastasia. She was sitting on a long bench together with Philekos and looked toward the wall clock in the room.
"No, no, no… time is still moving perfectly normally. You're just too focused on something that you forgot time had passed." said Philekos casually, shifting his gaze to look at Anastasia.
Hearing the response to her own words, Anastasia glanced at Philekos for a moment and then spoke. "That, I already know. It's just that what I'm feeling is different. It feels like time passed so quickly, from when I walked out of the inn, being in the middle of the city, then meeting Miss Lynda at the adventurers' guild… everything felt so fast." said Anastasia, slowly closing her eyes and sitting calmly while enjoying the warm sunlight in the middle of winter.
Philekos, who listened to Anastasia's words from beginning to end, only smiled gently as he watched his companion feel time pass so quickly. He knew that earlier they had discussed with Lynda which mission they would take, then planned to meet the little girl named Ishia, and had Lynda prepare a special room inside the adventurers' guild so that the meeting would become a formal one.
That special room was located on the right side of the adventurers' guild building, close to the registration room that was rarely used except when someone was interested in becoming an adventurer. Lynda allowed Anastasia and Philekos to use that room as a meeting place after agreeing to introduce Anastasia to the little girl.
Lynda then left the two of them alone and went out for several minutes to fetch Ishia, who lived quite far from the adventurers' guild. According to the information Lynda provided, Ishia was a 9-year-old child who lived with her older sibling on the far outskirts of the city, an area known as a poor and dangerous district due to its high crime rate. Even with such limitations, Ishia and her older sister still held onto honesty and kindness, even though their work was only taking care of animals and cleaning their pens.
However, those days had already passed. Ishia's older sister was declared missing by the city's knight guard after a large-scale kidnapping tragedy that involved 14 victims and more than 20 perpetrators. Most of the victims were people who lived in slum districts and had no familial connections with anyone, making information about them extremely scarce. This issue led the knights to choose the path of falsifying information to the middle and upper classes, that overall did not care about the lower class.
That horrifying injustice made Ishia, in resignation, offer all the savings she and her sister had amounting to 600 silver to any adventurer who could rescue her sister from the bandits' hands.
At first, the offer seemed quite promising to B-rank and A-rank adventurers. They considered it an easy task since it was only against bandits. But once they learned information about who those bandits actually were, they immediately refused the mission and discarded it.
Only a week later, after Anastasia arrived in this city, the mission was posted again on the adventurers' guild notice board for a short time, before being put back into a cardboard box along with other neglected missions and prepared to be burned. Fortunately, Anastasia arrived at just the right time and was looking for a mission with minimum pay, which made Lynda include Ishia's mission as one of the selectable options hoping it would be chosen by Anastasia.
And once again, fortune favored her. Anastasia chose to take that mission despite the many missions with much higher pay and far lower risk.
After waiting for quite a long time inside the room, the sound of a door opening was finally heard from the back, causing Philekos and Anastasia to glance in the same direction at the same time. A woman in a gray uniform with gold patterns walked in with a gentle smile, accompanied by a girl who looked serious at her side.
"Sorry to keep you waiting so long, Miss Anastasia and Lord Philekos." said Lynda softly, stepping aside to let the girl meet Anastasia and Philekos.
"It's all right, Miss Lynda. Is that girl Ishia?" asked Anastasia gently. She slowly pushed herself to stand and turned to face Lynda and the girl fully.
"Yes, Miss Anastasia." answered Lynda. She then shifted her gaze toward Ishia, who stood there with a serious look. "Ishia, please introduce yourself to the big brothers and sisters in front of you… the ones who want to help you." she said softly.
"How are you, Ishia?" asked Anastasia, with a smile on her face.
She greeted Ishia in a way that was rarely done by people, causing Ishia to be surprised and show an expression of disbelief.
"I-I'm doing fine. Thank you for asking." said Ishia nervously. She didn't fully know how to answer.
Seeing Ishia's surprised expression, Anastasia let out a small chuckle and covered her mouth with the back of her hand, feeling that Ishia's reaction was very cute.
"Hahaha~ you don't need to thank me, Ishia. I should be the one thanking you for being willing to consider meeting me." said Anastasia.
"U-uh, I should be the one thanking you, ma'am…?" said Ishia, confused about how she should address Anastasia.
"Oh~ forgive me. Let me introduce myself. My name is Anastasia Germaine Lawrence… you can call me Sister, or just Anastasia if you like." Anastasia introduced herself while bowing slightly and lifting her cloak a bit to show a polite gesture.
The humble and sincere attitude shown by Anastasia made Ishia immediately react the way she always did.
"Lady Anastasia… y-you really don't need to bow like that. I'm not worthy of seeing someone as elegant as you do that." said Ishia, raising both of her hands, hoping Anastasia would stop.
The innocent and clumsy gesture shown by Ishia made Anastasia laugh again in front of them. Ishia saw Anastasia laughing and felt confused , did I do something wrong, or not?that thought appeared in her mind. She felt she had done something wrong that made Anastasia laugh at her, but before she could fully misunderstand the situation, Philekos suddenly appeared in front of her.
"Yo, kid with the interesting look on the face. My Partner here just thinks you're cute, in a good way. Forgive her if that laughing expression of happiness offended you." said Philekos, floating with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a grin on his face.
"Eh! A FLYING DOG!" screamed Ishia, shocked as she saw Philekos for the first time. The strange and unnatural sight she was experiencing for the first time made her body react instinctively, she shouted and ran to hide behind Lynda's legs.